Temples

When You Wonder if You’re Good Enough for the Temple

I felt like I wasn’t good enough to enter the temple, but the Spirit told me otherwise.

For all of my life, I have heard about how important it is for us to attend the temple. I remember singing songs in Primary like “I Love To See the Temple” and “Families Can Be Together Forever,” which reminded me of how sacred the temple is and that we have to be worthy to be able to enter. I had been taught that it was the place where our Heavenly Father dwells and that it was so important to make it into those hallowed walls.

My parents had been within those very walls, though they weren’t able to frequent them as often as they would like to. They first went to the temple together a year after they were married. It was difficult because even though they knew they couldn’t afford to go, they knew they couldn’t afford not to either. It was always emphasized in our home to go to the temple as soon as we could and to make temple marriage our goal. My parents also showed me how important and sacred their covenants were. They taught me that they received many blessings from keeping their covenants, and because of their example, I decided that was something that I wanted too. Throughout the years, I kept reminding myself to “always keep the temple within my sights,”1 even though the nearest temple was far away.

Here in Barbados, we aren’t privileged to have a temple so close that we can walk or even take the bus. In order for us to get to a temple, we have to travel many miles away from home by plane. I think that’s why so many members treasure their visits to the temple.

The opportunity finally came for me to go the temple for the very first time, but for some reason, I felt incredibly anxious. The first thought that flooded my mind was that even though I was trying my best, it wasn’t good enough; I wasn’t worthy enough. This worried me tremendously. I was indeed trying my best, so why did I feel so deflated about going to the temple?